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The Prophets · Old Testament

Amos 5

Amos 5: a lamentation, 'seek ye me, and ye shall live', and judgment like waters

General context

The prophet takes up "a lamentation, O house of Israel": "The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise." A city of a thousand will keep a hundred. "Seek ye me, and ye shall live," and then, "But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba," for Gilgal will go captive and Beth-el come to nothing. Seek the Lord lest fire break out in the house of Joseph. Seek him who "maketh the seven stars and Orion" and turns the shadow of death into morning; "The Lord is his name." They hate the rebuker in the gate; treading on the poor, they will not live in their hewn-stone houses or drink from their vineyards. "I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right." "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live"; "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph." Wailing will fill the streets, "Alas! alas!", and the vineyards, "for I will pass through thee." "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord!" It is darkness, like fleeing a lion and meeting a bear. "I hate, I despise your feast days"; offerings are refused, songs called noise. "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Did they offer sacrifices forty years in the wilderness? They have carried "the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god," so the Lord will send them "into captivity beyond Damascus."

Cited passages: Amos 5:1, Amos 5:2, Amos 5:3, Amos 5:4, Amos 5:5, Amos 5:6, Amos 5:7, Amos 5:8, Amos 5:10, Amos 5:11, Amos 5:12, Amos 5:14, Amos 5:15, Amos 5:16, Amos 5:17, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:19, Amos 5:21, Amos 5:23, Amos 5:24, Amos 5:25, Amos 5:26, Amos 5:27

Amos 5 (KJV)

1Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

3For thus saith the Lord God; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

4For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

5But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

6Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,

8Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

9That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.

10They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

11Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.

12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.

13Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.

14Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.

15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

16Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.

17And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

18Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

19As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

20Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

21I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

22Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

23Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.

24But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

25Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

26But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

27Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

Verse 1 is in the prophet's voice, "which I take up against you," and the Lord's words are marked from verse 3, "thus saith the Lord God," and again in verses 4, 16, 17 and 27. The addressee is "house of Israel," also called "house of Joseph" and "the remnant of Joseph." Beth-el and Gilgal appear as in 4:4, and Beer-sheba is added, named again only at 8:14 in this book. The "gate" is where rebuke is hated, where the poor are turned from their right, and where judgment is to be established; the text treats it as the place where cases are heard. Moloch and Chiun are named as "your images, the star of your god" and nothing more is said of them; Acts 7:42-43 quotes this passage with the names "Moloch" and "Remphan." The phrase "the day of the Lord" is here something the hearers "desire" and are told is darkness. The clause "as ye have spoken" in verse 14 refers to a claim the chapter does not quote. The wilderness "forty years" is put as a question. The captivity is "beyond Damascus," no further place given, and no king or date appears.

Cited passages: Amos 5:1, Amos 5:3, Amos 5:27, Amos 5:6, Amos 5:15, Amos 4:4, Amos 8:14, Amos 5:12, Acts 7:43, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:14, Amos 5:25

Literary context

The chapter opens as a funeral song for someone not yet dead, "is fallen; she shall no more rise," and counts the losses in tens. "Seek" is the chapter's verb: seek me, seek not Beth-el, seek the Lord, seek him that maketh, seek good, five times, each paired with "live" or with a warning. The phrase "in the gate" occurs three times, moving from the rebuker who is hated to the poor turned aside to the command to establish judgment there. A name-statement, "The Lord is his name," interrupts the charges in verse 8 as it did in 4:13. Verse 18's woe is followed by two pictures of escape that fails, lion then bear, wall then serpent, in the manner of 2:14-16 and 3:12. Verses 21 to 23 pile up refusals, hate, despise, will not smell, will not accept, will not regard, take away, will not hear, and verse 24 answers with one moving image, judgment "as waters" and righteousness "as a mighty stream." The chapter ends beyond Damascus, the city that opened the oracles at 1:3.

Cited passages: Amos 5:2, Amos 5:4, Amos 5:6, Amos 5:14, Amos 5:10, Amos 5:15, Amos 4:13, Amos 5:19, Amos 3:12, Amos 5:22, Amos 5:24, Amos 5:27, Amos 1:3

Key moments

  1. The virgin of Israel is fallen (Amos 5:2). A lamentation says Israel has fallen with none to raise her up.
  2. Seek ye me, and ye shall live (Amos 5:4). The Lord tells the house of Israel to seek him rather than Beth-el, Gilgal or Beer-sheba.
  3. The poor in the gate (Amos 5:12). The Lord knows their sins: afflicting the just, taking bribes and turning the poor from their right.
  4. Hate the evil, love the good (Amos 5:15). Judgment in the gate may bring grace to the remnant of Joseph.
  5. The day of the Lord is darkness (Amos 5:18). Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord, which is darkness and not light.
  6. Judgment as waters (Amos 5:24). Feasts and songs are refused, and judgment is to run down like waters.
  7. Moloch and Chiun (Amos 5:26). They carried the tabernacle of Moloch and their star images and will go captive beyond Damascus.

For reflection

"Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord!" The chapter says that day is darkness. What in the chapter explains why the hearers would have wanted it?

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